In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, companies are racing to digitize their operations. But at what cost?
In the last few months, as a customer, I have stopped buying from at least 10 corporations because of their awful customer experience—made worse, not better, by digital technologies.
I witness every day how companies big and small are misusing digital to destroy value not create it, even if short-term profits are boosted by the cutting of costs.
It's getting worse, not better. We are entering an era of digital dystopia, not digital dreams.
As a digital transformation thought leader and keynote speaker, I challenge conventional wisdom about digital transformation and reveal why putting customers first is more crucial than ever.
The Digital Transformation Crisis
Drawing from decades of experience working with industry giants like The Walt Disney Company, Vodafone, and Microsoft, I offer unique insights into how businesses can avoid the pitfalls of misguided digital transformation.
As an early pioneer in the dot-com era and founder of multiple successful tech ventures, I bring a powerful perspective on bridging technology with human needs.
I got involved in digital back in 1999 because I believed in the promise of technology-fuelled emancipation, democratization, and decentralization.
Yet, increasingly, AI, automation, and digital are being leveraged to create consumer disgust vs. delight and customer friction vs. authentic value creation.
The use of digital to serve short-term profits, not customer satisfaction and long-term sustainable growth, can be seen in these tricks:
Being able to buy online but having to cancel on a phone call that takes hours
Being able to buy in-store but have to return online only
Chatbots that promise live agents that never arrive or take hours to enter the thread
Live agents that disappear if you don’t respond in minutes (you're busy working) after waiting hours
Live agents that don’t respond quickly because they’re working on too many other threads
Hard-to-follow or fathom UX for changing your service plan and multiple confusing steps for unsubscribing
UX with nudges (behavioral economics interventions) that direct you to spend more or increase your plan rather than have your concrete needs met
Online, email, or app-based customer complaints that disappear into the digital ether and don’t get answered
Customer service scripts and automated messages/emails that attempt to show what I have called elsewhere Fempathy (fake empathy) but don't actually solve the customer's problems in any way
Digital dead-ends where there seems to be no way to progress your purchase, return, or complaint
Digital experiences that strategically off-load work (that used to be done by the service provider) to the customer to reduce overheads
Why Your Digital Strategy Might Be Failing
Through engaging case studies and real-world examples, I illustrate how many companies are:
Prioritizing the use of digital channels for cost reduction over customer value
Creating friction points in the customer journey through poor digital UX
Missing opportunities to build lasting customer relationships using the interactive side of digital
Implementing AI and automation without considering the human benefits
Digital Transformation Is There To Create & Keep Customers
I am a massive fan of tech and have been since reading The Cluetrain Manifesto in 1999 (and setting up a tech start-up soon after).
Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter, ...and getting smarter faster than most companies.
In my leadership consultancy, and across my other projects, we use every digital solution (AI, automations, chatbots, etc) to deliver our business efficiently for us—and effectively for our customers.
But we know that our businesses—whether keynote speaking or leadership programs, whether retreats or innovation workshops—are always there to serve people.
The problem is that it seems most companies, in their rush to digitize everything, have forgotten the immortal words of the legendary management consultant Peter Drucker, who stated that the primary job of a company is to "create and keep customers."
It is always worth remembering that the core purpose of any business is to attract and retain paying customers who value your products/services and use them to solve problems they cannot or do not want to solve themselves.
The job of a company is not to reduce costs and increase margins. It is not to push as much of the work onto customers or reduce customer service to chatbots and phantoms of human beings.
Companies—and so the digital technologies they leverage—should exist to create a customer experience that is valuable and valued and for which customers are happy to pay a premium.
Profit is a wonderful outcome of that exchange of value.
How To Get Customer-Centric Digital Transformation Right
1. People-First Digital Strategy
Always remember that digital tools, whether augmenting or replacing human workers are means to create customer loyalty, not ends in themselves
Technology should enhance, not replace, human connections
Every digital solution must create tangible value for customers
Prioritize user experience over cost-cutting
Ensure digital solutions actually solve customer problems
2. Smart Automation with a Human Touch
Invest in advanced AI and chatbot technologies
Invest as much, if not more, in training human support teams
Create seamless transitions between automated and human support
Ensure live agents are empowered to solve complex customer issues with humanity and smarts
Unashamedly seek feedback from usage data, support agents, and customer surveys and use it to relentlessly improve the experience
3. Designing Digital-Driven Customer Experiences
Use design thinking tools and best practices to design customer experiences that delight, humanize, and connect
Develop intuitive, frictionless digital processes that demonstrate to your customers that you understand their process and challenges
Avoid offloading work to customers unless it empowers them
Create multiple support channels that act as positive brand touchpoints
Your Path to Customer-Centric Digital Transformation
As a keynote speaker, I share proven strategies for:
Aligning digital initiatives with customer needs
Building sustainable competitive advantages
Creating value-driven automated experiences
Balancing efficiency with human touch
Developing future-proof digital strategies
Why Book Me For Your Next Event?
With over 25 years of experience in digital innovation and customer experience, I can share:
Practical insights from working with global brands
Engaging storytelling backed by real-world case studies
Actionable frameworks for successful digital transformation
Forward-thinking and human-centric perspectives on AI and automation
Strategic guidance for customer-centric business models
Here is a topic teaser video I did as a keynote speaker on the human side of digital transformation:
Transform Your Organization's Digital Future
Book me to help your organization navigate the complexities of digital transformation while maintaining focus on what matters most: your customers. My presentations combine deep technical knowledge with practical business acumen, delivered in a hyper-engaging and accessible style that resonates with audiences at all levels.
Your audience will learn:
How to avoid common digital transformation pitfalls
Strategies for maintaining a relentless customer focus in digital initiatives
Methods for humanizing digital experiences, from AI to chatbots
Ways to balance automation with the personal touch
How to find and flex customer insights that provide long-term competitive advantage
Contact us today to book me for your next event and discover how to transform your organization's digital future while keeping customers at the heart of everything you do.
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